This summer we tried different road to go to Adana. We haven’t been in Malatya before so we wanted to see there and took Malatya route. It was a beautiful city which has really crowded street at city center at nights. I was pleased that we did try this different route.

Then we headed to Northern Turkey for spending the rest of our holiday. Firstly, we stayed in Araklı, Trabzon for a week visiting different districts like Sürmene, Çaykara, Akçaabat everyday. When we were in Trabzon we planned to go to Batum, Georgia and we waited 3 hours at the boarder with 3 impatient boys whose eldest is 10 years old in our car. we had fun and liked Batum which is one of the most important harbors of Georgia. After we turned back to Trabzon, a few days later we passed to Giresun and then Ordu. It was so tiring with these boys but fun and interesting as well.

Akçaabat district which is famous with meatball has a beautiful shore. what a magnificent feeling to see the sea! We had meatball, vegetable bulgur pilaf, salad with beans, ayran, ezme salad, hazelnut baklava, local corn bread and of course tea! İt was a crowded place where is filled with local and foreign tourists.

You see one of our tea gatherings with ladies in pictures. It is Nalan’s table setting. She is a talented Circassian woman. This would be the first Circassian recipe I added to my blog. Perhaps she’ll keep preparing from Circassian cuisine in every gatherings so I ‘ll share with you! Let’s move on what we had that day…

Our host herself was a Circassian, so she knows details about the salad made around Turkey. I asked her that the salad I know is a little different than she prepared that day. For instance, there is always a few slices of bread (ground in food prossesor) and minced garlic inside the salad.

The other difference was red oil (means oil and paprika mixture). Normally oil and paprika are heated and some is added inside the salad and rest is drizzled on the salad as garnish.

She says that they normally prepare a kind of tiny dough pieces like gnocchi in original recipe of Circassian chicken salad. They cook them by boiling then drain and add to the salad. Since she thought that everybody might not like it so she omitted the dough part and prepared the salad without dumplings. She thinks that adding bread crumbs might be for substitution for that dough part.

Drizzling red oil inside and on top of salad is a part of original recipe so you could prepare and add some oil/ paprika mixture to your salad.

The pictures shared were taken from the dinner recently. A close fiend of us from Kars invited us for a nice dinner and prepared a famous local “baked goose”. We had a wonderful time and goose tasted great. They invite us almost every winter to have “the ultimate goose”. All the process and the procedures to transform the goose into en excellent delecacy presented here is from her (Besra Abla) .

Preparing goose is a really though job. It takes time and needs effort but it really has a different taste than any other fowl. First, after they slaughter the goose, they clean inside and out. They pull all the feathers up and wash and drain for a while until it dries completely.

Then they rub the goose inside and out with plenty of salt. They put some really heavy material on it to drain all the blood for a week .

When it comes to cooking, they cut goose into parts like breast, legs, wings, neck…If you want to roast it as whole, definetely you could. But here in Kars, some people divide it into parts first before cooking.

Cook the goose in boiling water first until half tender. Keep the broth for pilaf. Place the meat on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven until completely done. During all phrases skin of the goose should be kept.

People living in Kars use the broth for bulgur pilaf and they certainly serve the meat of goose on top of bulgur pilaf. You could click on the link here to see how the goose is served in a famous local restaurant.

I want to talk about the menu that our host prepared for us that night. We had

this was the dessert our host prepared after a luscious goose dinner. It is called “poppy seed dessert”. I ‘ll share the recipe below. Take good care of yourself….After busy mid-term exams, final exams and final make-up exams, now we’re free to give a break…have a great, stress, anxiety and fear free holidays….

Poppy Seed dessert

ingredients

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil (whatever you use for cooking like canola, sunflower or corn oil)

1 and 1/2 cup all- purpose flour

1 cup semolina

1 cup poppy seed

1 tspfull baking powder

1 tsp vanilla sugar

for syrup

3 cups sugar

2 cups water

a few lemon drops

for top

2 cups whipped cream

coarsely chopped pistachios

directions

In a medium sauce pan, bring water and sugar boil to make syrup. Add lemon juice and boil for additional 3-5 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it cool down to room temperature.

Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, mix eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until foamy. Add oil, semolina, poppy seed and flour one at a time. Stir baking powder and vanilla sugar in. Whisk until well blended. Grease a baking tray and pour the batter in. Smooth with a spatula and bake until a toothpick insert in and comes out clean. Get the cake out of oven and let cool on a rack.

Cut the cake into medium squares and pour the syrup evenly. Spread already thawed whipped cream on top and decorate with coarsely chopped pistachios.

People in and around Van had a strong earthquake in sunday 23rd October 2011. The largest was probably a magnitude of 7.2, which isn’t larger than any earthquake yet experienced in Anatolia. Because they experienced a stronger one in November 24, 1976 as magnitude of 7.5 in Muradiye, Van. More than six hundred people lost their lives and almost five thousand people have wounded. We are very sorry as Nation. Everybody did his best to save them and help rescued people stay alive in Van which is one of the coldest cities of Turkey. I hope they easily get well soon. May Allah help them heal in no time.

This is our central bazaar like farmers market in Kars. I like being there for shopping. Maybe it is not like any other market at Southern or Western Turkey but still good enough to pick fruits and vegetables. When it is really chilly and snowy, they don’t set up the tents to sell. So we get our needs from greengrocer or grocery stores in town.

Paper kabob is my sister’s recipe. She used to prepare all kind of veggies like eggplant, red pepper, in addition to those vagetables I used below. But I categorize them. If I put chicken, then I use potato, peas, carrot, onion, mushroom, tomato, green pepper. I think that they go great together. Or If the main ingredient is beef stew, I prefer preparing the bundles with eggplant, red pepper, tomato, green pepper, onion and garlic. All vegetables must be pre-cooked or fried. So in this way, it’ll be very tasty. But if you want it to be healthy and light, do what I did then. I cut the vegetables in small cubes and combine with olive oil and place on baking tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cooked, instead of frying them.

EID MUBARAK TO YOU ALL!

Tomorrow, sunday November 6th 2011, is our religious day. It is eid ul-adha. Eid Mubarak to all brothers and sisters!

At the end of the Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca), Muslims throughout the world celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice). In 2011, Eid al-Adha will begin on or around November 6th, and will last for three days.

On the first morning of Eid al-Adha, Muslims around the world attend morning prayers at their local mosques. Prayers are followed by visits with family and friends, and the exchange of greetings and gifts. At some point, members of the family will visit a local farm or otherwise will make arrangements for the slaughter of an animal. The meat is distributed during the days of the holiday or shortly thereafter.

Paper kabob (with chicken and vegetables)

ingredients

1 large chicken breast, cut in small cubes

3 medium potatoes, cut in cubes

3 green peppers, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 cup peas, cooked

1 onion, chopped

1 cup diced carrots, diced

a box of button mushrooms (400 g), diced and cooked

1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste

4 tbsp olive oil

salt

pepper

paprika

Cooking Instructions

Fry all vegetables starting from potatoes, carrot, green pepper and place them on paper towel placed platter. Saute chicken cubes in 2 tbsp oil. Dissolve tomato or pepper paste in 1 cup of water and add to the chicken. Turn the heat off and let cool to room temperature. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients fried veggies, sauted chicken. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Stir to combine. Cut parchment paper into 30×30 cm squares. Divide the already cooked ingredient with spoon and place at the centre of paper. Fold the edges and seal. Place the edges under the bundle and place them on baking tray. Bake in 350 F for 20-25 minutes and serve hot as individual packets with rice and your favorite salad.

Finally, we’re back home. We, boys and I, were at South in my hometown for summer holiday. Mr S. has been in Ardmore, Oklahoma/U.S. for past six months. He’s back safe and sound. We’re supposed to go with him initialy, but just prior to his departure, there was an obstacle. There wasn’t any house for rent for 6 months. Hence, we stayed here in Turkey and said good-by to Mr S.

Anyway, it is good to be home and write something to you…I hope this could be the last time for such a long separation, but I benefited the most from this travel… a brand new camera, a new notebook and a phone…how does it sound? good enough right?

in the first picture below, you see ‘Fish Taco’; a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling ( A taco could be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. A taco is generally eaten without utensil and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, avocado or guacamole, cilantro, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.)

In the second photo, American classic ‘short ribs’ (from Texas). First two pictures were taken by Mr. S.

I took the last picture, braised beef (cooked with diced tomato and green pepper). It is served with rice pilaf and roasted pepper and tomato…

After a short while, here I am again with some local tastes and significant foods. In this post, we’ll take a glance at the ice cream made in Turkey.

Dondurma is the name given to ice cream in Turkey. Dondurma typically includes the ingredients milk, sugar, salep, and mastic, and may originate from Kahramanmaraş province of Turkey.

The Kahramanmaraş region is known for maraş dondurması (ice cream). Maras ice cream is a creamy, smooth Turkish ice cream with an elastic texture and a variety which contains distinctly more salep than usual; tough and sticky, it is served with a knife and a fork. You need to chew it; it melts as you chew

Maras Ice Cream is made from milk, sugar and powder from the tubers of wild orchids. These oval tubers grow in pairs. The best ones dry to the color of alabaster, indicating a high mucilage content. The tubers are dried, then ground into a called “salep” which is used in the ice cream for the unique taste and the thickening agents. The milk used for ice cream could be goat’s, sheep’s or cow’s.

After the mixing is done in gelato machines, the mixture is then pounded with metal rods or wooden paddles for minutes to develop its elasticity. It becomes so stiff it could be hung from a hook.

It is made in different flavours such as vanilla, pistachio, etc.

In the picture above, you see the most famous ice cream in our country next to magnificent pistachio baklava slices from Maraş.